Celanese Theatre
(1951-52)
Episode Guide compiled by
The Classic TV Archive
with contributions by:
Rina Fox
references:
Library of Congress (telnet://locis.loc.gov)
Internet Movie Database (https://us.imdb.com)
UCLA Film and Television Archive
CELANESE THEATRE
Produced/ Directed by Alex Segal
for
ABC
Oct 3, 1951 to Dec 26, 1951 ABC Wed 10:00-11:00 (one hour format)
Jan 9, 1952 to Jun 25, 1952 ABC Wed 10:00-10:30 (half hour format)
Alternate Weeks with Pulitzer Prize Playhouse
Executive Producer A. Burke Crotty
Produced/directed by Alex Segal
Music Bernard Green
Script Editor Mab Anderson, in private life the wife of Playwright Maxwell
Anderson.
Art Director Albert Heschong
Premise: Based on Broadway plays.
Note: Performed on stage at the Celanese Theatre.
#################################
########### Celanese Theatre ###########
########### season 1 1951-52 ###########
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ABC Wednesdays 10:00-11:00pm Eastern
Alternated with "King's Crossroads" (from 10Oct51) & Pulitzer Prize Playhouse (from 19Dec51)
Oct 3, 1951 to Dec 26, 1951 ABC Wed 10:00-11:00 (one hour format)
Ep 1.01 [--] Celanese Theatre: AH, WILDERNESS
03-Oct-1951 ABC Wed
Based on the story by Eugene O'Neill
Directed by Alex Segal
starring
Thomas Mitchell .... Uncle Sid
Dorothy Peterson ... Muriel McComber
Roddy McDowall ..... Richard Miller
Howard St. John .... Nat Miller
Wright King
Synopsis:
A young man spirals out of control when his heart is broken. He starts drinking
and carousing and distances
himself from his family. [RF]
[--] King's
Crossroads: 10Oct51 ABC Wed (1st episode)
Film Shorts hosted by Carl King
Ep 1.02 [--] Celanese Theatre: SUSAN AND GOD
17-Oct-1951 ABC Wed
written by Rachel Crothers
starring
Pamela Brown ....... Susan Trexel
Wendell Corey ...... Barrie Trexel
Albert Dekker ...... Clyde Rochester
Helen Craig ........ Charlotte
Synopsis:
A socialite returns from Europe and introduces a new type of religion she
stumbled upon in Britain. She is determined
to spread the word in order to avoid dealing with her alcoholic husband and very
troubled daughter. [RF]
[--] King's Crossroads: 24Oct51 ABC Wed (2nd episode)
Film Shorts hosted by Carl King
Ep 1.03 [--] Celanese Theatre: WINTERSET
31-Oct-1951 ABC Wed
Based on the play by Maxwell Anderson
Directed by Alex Segal
starring
Eduardo Cianelli ... Trock
Royal Dano ......... Shadow
Ralph Morgan ....... Garth
Joan Chandler ...... Miriamne
Ludwig Donath ...... Esdras
Richard Carlyle .... The Hobo
Synopsis:
Story of three losers who meet on a dead end street. [RF]
Synopsis 2:
Three men are linked to a past crime from which they struggle to overcome.
Winterset, a 1935 play by American playwright Maxwell Anderson, is a love story
about star-crossed lovers, a family
story about a father protecting his son, and a crime story with gangsters and
murderers. But the characters who dramatize
Anderson's poetry are mainly tools to the play's ideas.. [RF]
*NOTE: With the memory of the scandalous Sacco-Vanzetti case still stuck in his
craw, Anderson wrote a drama that
deals with justice not done, the hopelessness of poverty, fear of the new, man's
eternal struggle to do the right
thing, and the redemption of one's soul. [RF]
[--] King's Crossroads: 07Nov51 ABC Wed (3rd episode)
Film Shorts hosted by Carl King
Ep 1.04 [--] Celanese Theatre: OLD ACQUAINTANCE
14-Nov-1951 ABC Wed
written by John Van Druten
starring
Ruth Chatterton .... Kit Marlowe
Edna Best .......... Millie Drake
Synopsis:
Kit Marlowe is single and a critically acclaimed author while Millie Drake is a
married popular fiction novelist
The friends blame each other for their problems as Millie's husband Preston
leaves her and Kit announces that she
is marrying a younger man. [RF]
[--] King's Crossroads:
21Nov51 ABC Wed (4th episode)
Film Shorts hosted by Carl King
Ep 1.05 [--] Celanese Theatre: COUNSELLOR-AT-LAW
28-Nov-1951 ABC Wed
written by Elmer Rice
starring
Alfred Drake ....... George Simon
Ruth Hussey ........ Cora Simon
Synopsis:
A Jewish lawyer works his way to the top of his profession when his wife leaves
him. He takes the case os Sarah Becker's
son Harry who is a Communist and has been brutalised by the police. [RF]
[--] King's Crossroads:
5Dec51 ABC Wed (5th episode)
Film Shorts hosted by Carl King
Ep 1.06 [--] Celanese Theatre: NO TIME FOR COMEDY
12-Dec-1951 ABC Wed
story by S.N. Behrman
starring
Ronald Howard ....... Gaylord Esterbrook
Sarah Churchill ..... Linda Paige Esterbrook
Jean-Pierre Aumont... Morgan Carrell
Synopsis:
An unassuming young playwright who travels to New York for some last revisions
to his successful play, where he falls
in love and marries the leading actress. After a string of four successful
comedies, he becomes the toast of the town
and a snobby sophisticate. His wife's rival convinces him he is wasting his time
on "light material" and should take
on more serious drama. But after the failure of his "serious play," the
playwright realizes his true callings in both
genre and in love. [RF]
Synopsis 2:
Playwright Gaylord Esterbrook has a hit with his first Broadway play and with
the leading lady. [RF]
[--] Pulitzer Prize Playhouse: THE SKIN OF
OUR TEETH
19-Dec-1951 ABC Wed
Ep 1.07 [--] Celanese Theatre: THE JOYOUS SEASON
26-Dec-1951 ABC Wed
written by Philip Barry
starring
Lillian Gish ....... Sister Christina
Wesley Addy ........ Hugh Farley
Synopsis:
The Farleys are worried when the maverick of the family, Sister Christina,
arrives from the nunnery to spend Christmas.
They think she may decide to claim, by their father's will, their town house
instead of the farm. [RF]
*Note: Lillian Gish also appeared in the Broadway play in 1934 in the same role.
[RF]
[--] Pulitzer Prize Playhouse: ALISON'S HOUSE
02-Jan-1952 ABC Wed
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Jan 9, 1952 to Jun 25, 1952 ABC Wed 10:00-10:30 (half hour format)
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Ep 1.08 [--] Celanese Theatre: REUNION IN VIENNA
09-Jan-1952 ABC Wed
written by Robert E. Sherwood
starring
Melvyn Douglas ..... Archduke Rudolph von Hapsburg
Signe Hasso ........ Elena
Ernest Truex ....... Dr. Anton Krug
Synopsis:
Upon returning from exile after a decade, the wild and amorous Rudolph renews
his affection for his previous mistress,
Elena who is now married to the dignified Dr. Anton Krug.[RF]
Synopsis 2:
An engaging but impoverished Hapsburg prince returns to the scene of his
family's former glory and becomes emotionally
involved with the vivacious wife of a learned professor.[RF]
*Note: Made into a motion picture in 1933 starring John Barrymore and Diana
Wynyard.[RF]
[--] Pulitzer Prize Playhouse: THE TOWN
16-Jan-1952 ABC Wed
Ep 1.09 [--] Celanese Theatre: ANNA CHRISTIE
23-Jan-1952 ABC Wed
story by Eugene O'Neill
starring
Richard Burton ..... Mat Burke
June Havoc ......... Anna Christie
John Qualen ........ Chris
Synopsis:
After running away from home after she is raped Anna Christie turns to
prostitution. She meets and falls in love
with Mat who begs her not to prostitute herself again. [RF]
[--] Pulitzer Prize Playhouse: YEARS OF GRACE
30-Jan-1952 ABC Wed
Ep 1.10 [--] Celanese Theatre: BRIEF MOMENT
06-Feb-1952 ABC Wed
story by S.N. Behrman (Samuel Nathaniel Behrman)
starring
Veronica Lake ...... Abby Fane
Burgess Meredith ... Rodney Deane
Robert Sterling .... Harold Sigrift
Anthony Ross ....... Franklin Deane
Synopsis:
A wealthy young man defies his parents' wishes and marries a night club singer.
His parents threaten to cut him
off from his monthly allowance to force him to earn his own money. [RF]
[--] Pulitzer Prize Playhouse: HILL 346 --
A REPORT ON KOREA
13-Feb-1952 ABC Wed
Ep 1.11 [--] Celanese Theatre: THE PETRIFIED FOREST
20-Feb-1952 ABC Wed
written by Robert E. Sherwood
Directed by Alex Segal
starring
David Niven ........ Duke Mantee
Kim Hunter ......... Gaby Maple
Synopsis:
At a desert restaurant called the Black Mesa Bar-B-Q, the owner and his daughter
Gaby Maple and an unfortunate
hitchhiker Alan Squier are held hostage by fleeing killer Duke Mantee and his
henchmen. [RF]
[--] Pulitzer Prize Playhouse: MELVILLE GOODWIN, U.S.A.
27-Feb-1952 ABC Wed
Ep 1.12 [--] Celanese Theatre:
THE ANIMAL KINGDOM
05-Mar-1952 ABC Wed
written by Philip Barry
starring
Wendell Corey ...... Tom Collier
Meg Mundy .......... Daisy Sage
Synopsis:
Tom Collier marries Cecilia and realizes too late that his relationship with
Daisy is the one that means most to him. [RF]
* Based on the 1932 film starring Leslie Howard, Myrna Loy and Ann Harding. [RF]
[--]
Pulitzer Prize Playhouse: MONSIEUR BEAUCAIRE
12-Mar-1952 ABC Wed
Ep 1.13 [--] Celanese Theatre: SATURDAY'S CHILDREN
19-Mar-1952 ABC Wed
Based on the 1929 play by Maxwell Anderson
starring
Mickey Rooney ...... Rims Rosson
Synopsis:
A stenographer, Bobby Halevy is in search of romance feeling that marriage would
be too much hardship as well as
disappointment. She meets inventor Rims Rosson and changes her mind. [RF]
*Note Playwright Maxwell Anderson got his idea for Saturday's Children from
Ibsen's Love's Comedy. The play is about
the fact that marriage ends romance so he used that idea for Saturday's
Children, where they tried marriage and didn't
like it and went back to romance. [RF]
[--] Pulitzer Prize Playhouse: ROBERT E. LEE
26-Mar-1952 ABC Wed
Ep 1.14 [--] Celanese Theatre: STREET SCENE
02-Apr-1952 ABC Wed
Based on the 1929 play by Elmer Rice
Directed by Alex Segal
Art Director Albert Heschong
starring
Coleen Gray ........ Rose Maurrant
Paul Kelly ......... Frank Maurrant
Ann Dvorak ......... Anna Maurrant
Michael Wager ...... Sam Kaplan
Synopsis:
Rose's domineering and abusive father and her struggles with a difficult and
demanding boss lead Rose to the friendly
and caring neighbor Sam who is deeply concerned for her, to the point of falling
in love. [RF]
*Pulitzer Prize for dramatic play in 1929.
*Made into a 1931 film of the same name starring, Sylvia Sidney, Estelle Taylor
and Beulah Bondi. [RF]
[--] Pulitzer Prize Playhouse: THE JUNGLE
09-Apr-1952 ABC Wed
Ep 1.15 [--] Celanese Theatre: MORNING'S AT SEVEN
16-Apr-1952 ABC Wed
Based on the 1939 play by Paul Osborn
starring
Aline MacMahon
Patricia Collinge
Synopsis:
Homer lives at home at age 42 never married and has known Myrtle for twelve
years. His mother Ida and father Carl
can't wait to for him to bring her home. Even Aunt Esther is beside herself with
excitement. This saga of the four
"crazy" Gibbs sisters, their impossible mates and quirky offspring. [RF]
[--] Pulitzer Prize Playhouse: THE
FASCINATING STRANGER
23-Apr-1952 ABC Wed
Ep 1.16 [--] Celanese Theatre: THEY KNEW WHAT THEY
WANTED
30-Apr-1952 ABC Wed
Based on the 1924 play by Sidney Howard
starring
Robert Stack ....... Joe
Betty Field ........ Amy Peters
Frank Puglia ....... Tony Patucci
Synopsis:
A waitress lies about herself in correspondence with an Italian-born vineyard
owner. Patucci himself has misrepresented
himself as the two make arrangements to be wed. Vowing to be loyal to him even
though she finds him distasteful she
enters into an affair. [RF]
*Based on the 1940 film with Carole Lombard, Charles Laughton and William Gargan.
Won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1925. [RF][--] Pulitzer Prize Playhouse: THE RETURN OF MR. MOTTO
07-May-1952 ABC Wed
Ep 1.17 [--] Celanese Theatre: THE DISTAFF SIDE
14-May-1952 ABC Wed
Based on the 1933 play by John Van Druten
starring
Celia Johnson
John Merivale
Eileen Peel
Synopsis:
The live of an upper middle-class family is ruled by the ancient and churlish
matriarch. Her daughters marriages are
all in jeopardy, with affairs and communions with the dead, it makes it
difficult to find any sense of semblance or
solitude. [RF]
[--] Pulitzer Prize Playhouse: THE AMERICAN LEONARDO: THE LIFE OF SAMUEL F.B.
MORSE
21-May-1952 ABC Wed
Ep 1.18 [--] Celanese Theatre: YELLOW JACK
28-May-1952 ABC Wed
written by Sidney Howard
directed by Alex Segal
starring
Macdonald Carey (TV debut)
Richard Kiley
Jack Klugman
Walter Abel
Walter Reed ?
Synopsis:
The life of Dr. Walter Reed, who worked in the Latin American jungles of the
1900s to discover
a cure for yellow fever. [RF]
Synopsis 2:
Dr. Walter Reed travels to fever stricken Cuba in an attempt to battle the
deadly plague known as "Yellow Jack". [RF]
* Made into the 1938 film starring Robert Montgomery, Andy Devine, Lewis Stone
and Virgnia Bruce.
The history of the Yellow Fever Commission made one of the most exciting
chapters in Paul de Kruif's brilliant Microbe
Hunters.* In the theatre, Sidney Howard retells it in 29 scenes played without
an intermission against an "essentialist"'
setting devised by Jo Mielziner. The background of the stage, a flight of stairs
surmounted by a sort of cage to represent
a laboratory, does not change. A few essential props—a bed, the back flap of a
tent, a hospital cot—indicate scenes where
necessary. That the most genuinely heroic human activities do not always make
the most stirring dramas is a fact which
does not greatly injure the effect of Yellow Jack, which remains an honest
interesting chronicle about men who did not
think of themselves as heroes. [RF]
[--] Pulitzer Prize Playhouse: DAISY MAYME
04-Jun-1952 ABC Wed
Ep 1.19 [--] Celanese Theatre: WHEN LADIES MEET
11-Jun-1952 ABC Wed
Based on the 1932 play by Rachel Crothers
starring
Claudia Morgan
Patricia Morison
Richard Carlson
Synopsis:
Mary Howard is attracted to her married publisher, this upsets her current beau
Jimmy who sets up a random meeting
between the two ladies. [RF]
*Made into a motion picture in 1933 with Robert Montgomery, Myrna Loy and Ann
Harding.
Then into a 1941 film starring Robert Taylor, Joan Crawford and Greer Garson. [RF]
[--] 18Jul52 - no details
Ep 1.20 [--] Celanese Theatre: ON BORROWED TIME
[verified -RF]
25-Jun-1952 ABC Wed
Executive Producer A. Burke Crotty
Produced & Directed by Alex Segal
Teleplay by Norman Lessing; Based on the play by Paul Osborn
Editor Mab Anderson
Settings Albert Heschong
Costumes by Audre
Music Bernard Green
Technical Director George Weber
starring
Ralph Morgan ....... Gramps Julian Norfolk
Melville Cooper .... Mr. Brink
Mildred Dunnock .. Demetria
Philip Coolidge ..... Pilbeam
Billy Chapin .......... Pud
Clay Clement ....... Dr. Evans
Nell Harrison ........ Gram Norfolk
Humphrey Davis .. Grimes
Norma Connolly ... Marcia
Michael DeMarrias .. Boy
Synopsis 1:
When young Pud's parents are killed, his grandparents try to raise him, fearing
that their own death is fast approaching.
"Mr. Brink," an ominous messenger from beyond, drops in to pay them a visit and
gets entangled in their apple tree. [RF]
Synopsis 2:
An elderly couple struggle to raise their orphaned grandson. When death appears
in the form of a polite gentleman
named Mr. Brink, they fool the dark apparition and trap it in their apple tree.
[RF]
*NOTE: Made into a 1939 film starring Lionel Barrymore, Beulah Bondi, Una Merkel
and Cedric Hardwicke. [RF]
#################################
########### Celanese Theatre ###########
############## the end ###############
#################################
In last week's TV version of Sidney Howard's They Knew
What They Wanted, there was no longer any mention of the fact
that one of the leading characters was a confirmed Wobbly.
Says Mab Anderson: "People today don't even know what Wobblies* are."
Wobblies were members of the I.W.W. (International Workers of the World), a
radical union that reached its peak in 1912,
and was largely broken by vigilante action and a movement of many of its members
to the Communist Party a few years
after World War I.
Ratings suffered because the show (alternate Weds. 10 p.m., ABC) has played
opposite such attractions as the fights
between Jake LaMotta & Gene Hairston, Sugar Ray Robinson & Rocky Graziano.
This is particularly unfortunate because in its first year on TV, Celanese has
put on more grownup drama than almost
any of its rivals
Excerpt from "Filmed Television Drama 1952-1958".
Playwright Elmer Rice stated that his play "Counsellor-at-Law which aired
November 28, 1951 on Celanese Theatre,
charged that an attorney for the advertising agency handling the Celanese
account was using "Red Channels" as a
guide for blackballing actors chosen by the playwrights, producers and
directors. As a result, Rice said he would
prohibit further presentation of his plays on Celanese Theatre. But by the time
his play "Street Scene" was
telecast on April 2, 1952 his concerns had been alleviated. [RF]
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